The sun rises in the east and sets in the west – and RuPaul Charles always wins the Emmy for Best Reality Host. A victory for RuPaul for his iconic hit “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has literally become as dependable as the behavior of that big ball in the sky. Since 2016, in fact, he hasn’t lost, winning the trophy for the category eight consecutive times and gunning for a ninth straight this year. He has, in fact, never lost in the category. Will he keep his perfect record intact?
There is alas evidence that this could be the year he finally meets his match. The predictions in Gold Derby still favor RuPaul by a wide margin – but they’ve been wrong before. To get a better assessment, Gold Derby senior editors Denton Davidson, Daniel Montgomery and Marcus James Dixon and news and features editor Ray Richmond got together to slug it out with their opinions of how the host race will play out along with several other reality, variety and special program categories that will be decided at both the Creative Arts Emmys on September 7 and 8 and the Primetime Emmy ceremony on September 15. Watch the foursome’s colorful debate above.
The other four nominees for reality host who are chasing RuPaul this time are Alan Cumming for “The Traitors,” Jeff Probst for “Survivor” (a four-time winner in the category landing his first nomination since 2011), Kristen Kish for “Top Chef” and the Shark Tank Hosts for “Shark Tank.” Will Cumming or Probst take RuPaul down? Richmond jokes that he’d like to see RuPaul and Cumming “mud wrestle for it” and admits he’s gone back and forth on his pick but for the moment is sticking with RuPaul. Davidson, too, is “playing it safe” and sticking with RuPaul, asking, “How can you vote against someone who’s undefeated? It’s hard to predict the time when he’s finally going to lose.” Well, Montgomery is predicting it, picking Cumming. “It’s his first nomination for hosting, but he’s been nominated several times as an actor at the Emmys. It could just be that getting nominated is the hardest part, and now that he’s in, Alan is going to win.”
Dixon makes the point that “this is not a two-way race but a three-way race” and that Probst also has never lost when he’s been nominated. “Jeff Probst is very strong third place,” he believes. “My heart wants to go with somebody new – Alan Cumming – but knowing the Emmy voters and how they love repeats, I could easily see RuPaul winning this again…I don’t know what to do with this one. I’ll probably go with Alan Cumming and probably get it wrong.”
In the related Best Competition Program lineup where “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is going up against “The Traitors,” “Top Chef,” “The Voice” and “The Amazing Race,” “Drag Race” is well ahead here as well in the Gold Derby odds. It’s won in the category five times previously including in 2023 (handed out this past January). Dixon points out that “Drag Race” has recently been shocked once before – in 2022, when “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” took the crown. “Lizzo’s was a very empowering show (like ‘Drag Race’),” he emphasizes. “It made you feel good when you watched it. As much as I love ‘The Traitors,’ it’s not a feel-good type of inspirational show. It’s more on the trashy side, and I mean that with all the love in my heart. I think ‘Drag Race’ has this.” Montgomery agrees, believing, “It will keep on winning here for at least one more year,” while Richmond agrees “The Traitors” is “getting closer to unseating ‘Drag Race’ but may still be a year away or more.” Davidson makes the point that “‘Drag Race’ is still the most uplifting show of them all and is definitely the easy frontrunner here.”
Shifting to Best Variety Talk Series – where the nominees are “The Daily Show” (the runaway category leader on Gold Derby), “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” – the consensus among the four is that it’s “Daily Show’s” race to lose. For Davidson’s money, it’s the only one of the shows to have won multiple series Emmys. “It’s so strong historically,” he asserts. Montgomery makes the point that the category has rarely had a winner that didn’t have a single consistent host throughout “This one has rotating hosts,” he says, “but it’s the only nominees for a talk series that’s also up for writing. So I’m going with it.” Richmond notes that the show has received “an extra boost of buzz and popularity with Jon Stewart coming back to host one night and sometimes more every week. ‘Daily Show’ still comes through with the most bang for the buck.”
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